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2016 Safety Award

Wallis

Wallis

AWARD CITATION

Dr. Wallis is recognized for putting safety first in his leadership of the Precision Imaging Facility (PIF), a unique resource with custom tools and a diverse user base from multiple divisions and operating units at NIST.  Upon assuming leadership of this complex, shared-use facility, he identified significant opportunities for improving safety, and took the bold and unusual step of stopping work until they could be implemented.  His enhanced hazard-review process and procedures proved instrumental in the safe and efficient handling of a liquid-nitrogen spill during a new service start-up.  As a result of his work, both the users and $9 million of instrumentation were unharmed and the facility experienced a minimum of interruption.

INDIVIDUAL AWARD

T. Mitch Wallis

Physicist
Physical Measurement Laboratory